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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Who owns UNIX?
SCO says it owns UNIX. Not so, says The Open Group. So who really owns UNIX? I'm pretty sure it's a guy named Eddie. But seriously, folks. This is complicated. SCO, apparently, owns "all rights to UNIX technology, including the copyrights ... and trademarks." "SCO is the owner of the UNIX operating system, as well as all of the UNIX contracts, claims and copyrights necessary to conduct that business," says Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager, SCOsource intellectual property division, SCO. OK,fine. But The Open Group says that SCO "holds the rights only to the operating system source code originally licensed by AT&T and does not own the UNIX trademark itself or definition of what a UNIX system is ... SCO has never owned 'UNIX'." Instead, The Open Group says it owns the UNIX trademark and the [UNIX] specification (that subsequently became the Single UNIX Specification). "As the owner of the UNIX trademark, The Open Group has separated the UNIX trademark from any actual code stream itself, thus allowing multiple implementations. Since the introduction of the Single UNIX Specification, there has been a single, open, consensus specification that defines the requirements for a conformant UNIX system." Furthermore, The Open Group notes that, "There is a mark, or brand, that is used to identify those products that have been certified as conforming to the Single UNIX Specification ... now UNIX 03. Both the specification and the UNIX trademark are managed and held in trust for the industry by The Open Group." And not coincidentally, The Open Group is now suing Apple Computer for describing its Mac OS X system as UNIX (and using a non-standard "Built On UNIX" graphic) when it, in fact, does not conform to the UNIX 03 standard. Confused? This may help. It may not.

[ Posted at 12:56 PM | Permalink ]